The Evangelical Universalist Forum

I'm A Calvinist/Universalist

Evangelical Universalism Arguments for Evangelical Universalism
#1

I’m a Calvinist/Universalist. Like the New Calvinists I incorporate the Catholic mystics and paradox into my theology. I believe that Christ died for the elect and that He saves the elect by grace through faith in this lifetime. The reprobate undergo the corrective punishment and purification of the “Lake of Fire” in the next life. Faith is for this age not the next. When we daily repent, confess our sins, and trust in Christ and the Father we are forgiven and guaranteed God’s blood bought promises. God is in control and when my faith is in Him anxiety and frustrations are released and I can live in the present moment. Because my future is secure and in God’s hands I have hope. It’s faith - hope - and love that is the motivating factor. We know we are saved when we fall madly in love with Christ. We are the bride of Christ and Christ is neither male or female in the spirit. It’s the same experience the Christian mystics have when they come into faith union with Christ whose very essence is beauty and love. Union with Christ is a mystical union entered in by faith. We become one with Him. He is in us and we are in Him. This is how our sins become His and His righteousness becomes ours. We are crucified with Christ as sin is condemned and then we are resurrected to new life with Christ as our sin and God’s wrath is removed from our vision so that we can see and feel the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Blood in the Bible symbolizes life. Sin brings spiritual death. In faith union with Christ, His blood cleanses and purifies our sins and gives us life as God’s wrath is removed. It brings a smile to God’s face when we are cleansed and purified. It’s not the suffering and blood in and of itself that pleases God but in what Christ was accomplishing in giving grace to sinners and cleansing our sins. God’s not a sadistic blood-freak. Jesus is our mercy seat where our sins are cleansed and expiated and God’s wrath is propitiated. It’s this removal of sin and wrath that opens us up to see and feel the beauty of Christ’s holy love.

Union

In union with you upon the cross
As love’s arrow pierces my heart
I die to myself and suffer loss
Then given a new life and start

Buried to my old self I then rise
Vision is now clear as I can see
New self reflects in Your eyes
The person I am and want to be

Looking deeper into Your face
Beauty becomes brighter inside
With no more wrath only grace
In union with You I now confide

#2
#3

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With You My Love

When I’m with you I feel brand new
As wonder and joy fill my heart

In this romance we sing and dance
Intertwined never shall we part

As beauty flows my heart only knows
True love is what I have found

Your sweetest kiss brings heavens bliss
As music of the stars shines down

With you as my own I’m never alone
Secure within your loving arms

My heart’s set free with high ecstasy
Inside your world of lovely charms

#4

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Christ My Friend

What a wonderful friend I have in you
With a beautiful mind and heart so true
Your word lifts me up when I am blue
The love of your Spirit carries me through

You lift me as high as the blue sky above
Bringing good thoughts for me to think of
As joy fills my heart it pumps warm love
Your Spirit is as lovely as a baby dove

Because of you my heart’s eyes can see
Hope in the future that’s waiting there for me
With wonderstruck joy in a heart so free
A beautiful friend is what you will always be

#5
#6

Dear God, please reveal to us
your sublime
beauty

that is everywhere, everywhere, everywhere,

so that we will never again
feel frightened.

My divine love, my love,
please let us touch
your face.

by St. Francis of Assisi

#7

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Purified Through Beauty

Christ sings through You Holy Spirit
With heartfelt love I can hear it
Singing tunes of wonder and joy
Reminding me of when I was a boy
The gentle youth and cool breeze
Songs that are sung by dancing trees
Bringing in laughter of a new year
Releasing shame with colorful cheer
As Beauty captivates my tender heart
Giving my life a glowing new start
Cleansing my soul from all dark sin
Making me feel clean and fresh within
Fire burns away my cloudy perception
In your eyes I can see my own reflection
Vision now clears as I see the true me
In everything I am and want to be

#8

God’s Love

I hunger for more of Your love
With everything that it consists of

Truth for my open mind to see
And Beauty that sets my spirit free

Wonder that makes my dreaming soar
Mystery dancing along the shore

Within Your soul we entwine and meet
For Your love my heart will forever beat

It heals and makes my spirit well
Keeping me safe within all the hell

Sealing away my everlasting fate
As fires of love burn away my hate

#9
#10

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A Friend Like You

I’m glad to have a loving friend like you
As beautiful as the sun & heart so true
Even when I’m hurting & things are blue
It’s good that you care the way you do

In tough times when I haven’t got a clue
Love holds me up & carries me through
As night fades away & day becomes new
Oh how wonderful it is being loved by you

#11

As The Cool Wind Blows

Hearing a soft word touches me deep inside
And through my very being it opens me up wide
As love pierces deeper and my heart only knows
When I’m still and silent and the cool wind blows

Smiles lift me up and spark my darkened eyes
Releasing all the shame giving pink cloud highs
Sun becomes beauty as my face lights and glows
When I’m still and silent and the cool wind blows

Inside a voice tells me that there’s got to be more
Giving me a small glimpse of what may be in store
As tender thoughts emerge and the beautiful flows
When I’m still and silent and the cool wind blows

#12

Welcome back, Cole. :slight_smile:

#13

Thanks Jason! :smiley:

#14

Inside A New World

Kisses drip from the fingertips
In God’s warm heart of mystery
Circles of love dance in ships
Sailing the oceans through history

Worlds collide bringing joy & rain
A mixed blessing of high ecstasy
No more sorrow of blackened pain
Just a paradox of what is to be

Forever with you in a love so true
A new place of bright glistening
With a sky that is blue to be with you
We sing a tune with stars listening

In love forever we’ve reached our goal
Wonder has taken ahold of both of us
United in spirit as soft beauty unfolds
We dance the ring of love’s binding trust

#15

I go along with the Catholic G.K. Chesterton (the prince of paradox) who said he learned more about life by watching children in a nursery than he ever did by reflecting on any of the philosophers.

#16
#17

The new birth takes place when we are brought into contact with God’s saving grace. We will see God and His Son and His holy revealed will as beautiful and most valuable. We will see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ in the Gospel. God becomes our number one. His holy revealed will becomes beautiful bringing joy to our hearts. In this way we obey out of love. This doesn’t mean we never mess up. But when we do God will eventually convict us and bring us back to Himself as He restores to us the beauty of holy love. This is how we know we are born again.

  1. Those who are born again practice righteousness.
  1. Those who are born of God don’t make a practice of sinning
  1. Those who are born of God love others
  1. Those who are born of God confess the Son and have Him
  1. Those who are born of God believe that Jesus is the Christ
#18

In his book “Hope Beyond Hell” Gerry Beauchmin lists some passages that show the mysterious paradox of God using both mercy and justice to accomplish His purposes. Here are a few:

God works through BOTH mercy AND justice to accomplish His will and it is all driven by His love. The Catholic philosopher and apologist, Peter Kreeft (Ph.D), agrees with the mercy and justice paradox:

We also see this at the cross where both God’s mercy and justice kiss as Christ dies for His elect. Those who are one and in faith union with Christ are crucified with Him as they die to the old self and are risen to new life. This is also a picture of what happens to the reprobate in the Lake of Fire. They are both punished and purified as they are baptized in the Lake Of Fire. They die to the old self and are resurrected to new life. God often intertwines His mercy and justice to accomplish His purposes and it is all driven by holy love. This is what we see at the cross and this is what we see in the Lake Of Fire. This is also consistent with the word Kolasis in Matthew. Kolasis means punishment and correction both. As the New Testament Greek Lexicon states:

So, while people will be punished as they pay for their sins, they will be being corrected at the same time. It is my belief that while they are paying the price for their sins and recieve God’s correction, they will be purified in the fires as well.

#19

In Love With Jesus

Never before have I seen beauty like you
With a mind so pure and a heart so true
I see love in your eyes and a sky of blue
A slave to your love through and through

Purified with heat my mind is made new
Made one with you we are no longer two
Tied up in chains I don’t know what to do
With this flame inside that I have with you

#20

A Question of Wonder

by Rose Angel

Sunrise comes as a kaleidoscope of colours
bringing the horizon of hope
reborn for a new day.

With the suns’ rays of a new morning
coming across the waters comes thoughts
of life, and its questions and wonders.

The glow of the warmth on my face brings
awe as my spirit awakens with the morning
my eyes visualize the sun beaming.

“There are some things one sees and feels
that are beautiful”, I think to myself, that
are beyond our explanation for how lovely
they are!"

I remember hearing that one of them is
the way of a man with a maid, in Gods’ word.
Interrupting my thoughts a fish jumps
while in the distance a kayak glides slowly
across the lake in the distance.

My husband comes beside me putting his
arms around me from behind, and I realize
yes, this is one of those things as I
hear him express “Hi dear”
“Isn’t this a beautiful morning!”